I try not to report on the obvious when it comes to blogging. (Apart from to say that Scotland’s outdoors is fab!) So I had been trying very hard not to moan about the state of Scotland’s roads. We all know this. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. I have tried instead to only mention the poor state of our city roads when mentioning some lovely stretches of road, which, in comparison to the pot-hole ridden roads are worth tipping people off about.

But then came the rain and the pot holes weren’t so obvious and my cycle into Glasgow today turned into a pot-hole avoiding nightmare that ultimately ended with a burst tyre, a rain sodden walk and a late appointment.

I couldn’t count the number of pot-holes – or should that be cyclist-eating-sized holes – that I swerved around, swore through and risked my life in motorised traffic to avoid during the six miles from home to the city centre. Really, the roads have become more hole that smooth tarmac and some of the worst stretches are in the cycle/bus lanes.

And just when I thought I had safely made it through the worst of the danger zones I took a corner at the Cowcaddens traffic lights a little too directly and ended up going through not one, but two pot holes in quick succession. Who knows if it was the first or the second that destroyed my tyre and part of my rim but the effect was immediate. A totally flat tyre that would be impossible to cycle another centimetre on.

I might have been able to grimace a little if the sun had been shining but today’s strange wet stuff (how quickly we’ve become used to days and days of sunshine!) had left me soaked through and chilly. I plodded disconsolately through Glasgow’s wet roads and streets and arrived at my meeting late, cold and down-faced.

Thankfully the meeting was upbeat and interesting and the kind (hopefully potential) client bought me lunch and a large mug of very hot coffee. He wondered if I should notify the council about the pot holes and try to gain recompense for the bike repair but I can just imagine how many complaints Glasgow City Council has received in the last year.

Cycling on country roads this weekend the G-Force commented that we’ll all end up being forced to ride mountain bikes instead of racer bikes in the very near future. At the time that seemed a little far fetched but now I couldn’t agree more. My shiny new racer feels a little spoiled now that it has had its first flat tyre. Perhaps I need to bring my ancient mountain bike back out of the corner of the shed…